Take Me To The Lakes

FOUR

NEIL

As I retreat out the door of Mr. Keating's office, I'm left with my skin burning and an ache in my chest that won't go away.

Marjorie.

Even her name made my knees buckle and left a throbbing pain in my head from smiling excessively. She was exactly the girl that Nolan didn't want at Welton. Intelligent, beautiful, full of life. The type we would all fall in love with.

As I walked away from Keating's office, I realized I lost the boys since I stayed back an extra few seconds to say goodbye. When I do find them, they're standing in the doorframe of the hallway to the dorms with these stupid grins on their faces.

They knew too.

"So?" asks Charlie. I shrug, acting confused about what he means. When I, in fact, definitely do.

"So...what?" I ask back, still smiling as I push past them through the middle. I'm trying desperately to conceal my silly dimpled grin that reveals exactly how I feel about the sweet girl that loves poetry.

"Marjorie! Marj! She's..." Charlie trails off as he jogs to catch up and the others follow. I turn to face him when I reach my dorm door and he stops across from me where his is. The rest follow behind, chuckling and whispering.

"She's Keating's daughter." I finish for him. He rolls his eyes and groans before crossing his arms and leaning on the door frame. I furrow my brow in confusion.

"What? We cannot all be head over heels for Keating's daughter. It's not right, he's our teacher." I explain, knowing damn well I'm already planning the way I want to take her out towards the lake, listen to her read, and sit on a picnic blanket while we watch the sunset.

But I guess not everyone needed to know that.

"Neil, she's the girl. Like, THE girl. She reads poetry like it's a second language, has the voice of an angel, is super sweet, she..." Charlie rambles, his voice dripping with lust. I stop him abruptly.

"Yeah, yeah- yes. I get it." I say. It comes out angrier than I want it to, unveiling my feelings to the group more sharply than I would have liked. They all send me various 'ooo's' while Charlie raises a brow and steps closer.

"She's already under your skin, isn't she?"

I could never keep this a secret from him. But I had to.

"No! No, I just-" My voice trails off, and they all lean closer for the rest of the sentence to be completed. I wander aimlessly in my mind for the words but come up empty. Meeks gives me a brow lift while Knox leans forward on his shoulder and taunts me. Charlie laughs before turning back around to head for his door once more.

"You let me know when you figure that out." Charlie opens his door for Cameron to walk through before turning back to us when Meeks interjects.

"Look, we can discuss more tonight. Chemistry study group? Neil can help us out with the stuff he learned this summer for chapter five." Meeks suggests, and various nods and 'Yeahs' from the group confirm the meeting. I give Charlie a slight nod when he raises his brow after realizing I haven't responded.

"Good. Until then, boys." Charlie says, retreating into his room by following Cameron and I turn around to do the same. When I open the heavy wood door, Todd is sitting at his desk with a towel on his neck and his hair dripping water onto it. He's dressed in a grey shirt and sweatpants while scribbling in his notebook. I knew it was for math based on the color-coded system he had, which I noticed on the first day of classes. Several pages had been ripped out and crumpled into the trash and he was extremely concentrated on the chapter in his book.